Home Opinion The B-08 And B-10 Ceremonial Roads In Perspective

The B-08 And B-10 Ceremonial Roads In Perspective

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TPL Umar SHuaibu
TPL Umar Shuaibu

 

The most important parallel streets to serve the Central Area District as conceived are the B06, B08, B10 and B12.

Two are Expressways and two are Ceremonial Corridors. Of these, the Expressways, B06 and B12 are partly developed from the city gate to the three arms zone and are in use for long. It is only the B-06 known as the Constitution Avenue that has both its left and right sides, that is to and from the Airport that are now accessible, and developments of all its lanes almost completed. For the B-12, known as the Independence Avenue, only the onward side to the Airport is fully developed and accessible.

The B08 and B10 are referred to as Ceremonial corridors and are to be developed as boulevards. Their developments have not even commenced all these while. But the space to accommodate them are being preserved till date, courtesy of the continuous vigilance by the Development Control Department.

According to the original concept, the type of street furniture to be provided along the street are meant for aesthetics with decorative trees, to showcase the beauty of the city as against heavy commercial activities throughout the length of the streets.

Hence, the Ceremonial Corridors’ reference as the Abuja Down Town Boulevard. The proposal was for them to be flanked with low rise development blocks. In the event of upgrading the boulevard to high rise developments, the supporting facilities must also be upgraded. Adequate calculations must be made in order to provide adequate support facilities of parking, width of the adjoining roads and the metro services.

A previous administration led by Aliyu Modibbo as the FCT Minister reviewed the Kenzo Tange Central Area Plan and produced the Albert Spear Central Area Design. It was otherwise known as the Abuja Downtown Boulevard development plan. This effort to project the Abuja Downtown Boulevard beyond its original concept of a ceremonial to commercial, was heavily criticized. As debated, going against the implementation of the Arterials B08 and B10 as boulevards in the Central Area District is tantamount to denying Abuja an important function assigned to these roads in the city master plan.

The ceremonial roads run along both sides of the central shopping area in the CBD, the National Square in the Cultural Zone and the National Mall. They are then linked to the formal access of the Three Arms buildings. The section of the roads from the National Square along the National Mall can also be used for National Ceremonies. The road includes a 7m emergency lane in the center.

This is to be used only in emergencies by the Presidential Motorcade, the Fire Service and the ambulance. The model design of the Central Area District as produced by the Kenzo Tange Associates illustrates the low rise developments between B08 and B10 at the center surrounded by high rise between the B06 and B08s, and between the B10 and B12. In the provision of public parks, all the space beneath the bridges on roads B08 and B10 which are 56m wide and 200m long are proposed to be utilized with two floors to accommodate 750 cars each.

The Ceremonial Roads also play vital roles in servicing the City transportation center. The Center is located at the south-west end of the CBD Zone along the civic spine. It is divided into 3 rectangular areas by the ceremonial roads B-08 and B-10 and bounded by the arterial roads N-1, S-1 and N-2, S-2.

As important as the Transportation Center is for effective services to the City, it had for long been desecrated by allocation for private commercial use. We made a previous presentation on the matter about 17 years ago. It shall later be revisited. Meanwhile a city mall with the semblance of the round the clock commercial activity is proposed on block No. 32 in between arterial S11 which is the Ahmadu Bello Way and the Cultural Zone.

One important aspect of the plan as explicitly presented in the Phase I Central Area Development Guidelines by Kenzo Tange, and the Phase II produced by the AIMS consultants is that, all those blocks flanked in between the B08 and B10 are proposed to be of low rise, meaning their number of floors are not to exceed 4 to 5 floors.

It is those areas outside the central blocks adjoining the boulevard that medium rise of between 7 to 8 floors and high rise of between 10 to 12 floors are to be allowed. That was prior to 2004. Afterwards, the El Rufa’i administration approved raising the maximum allowable height to 25 floors in the Central Area. Unfortunately, the non-implementation of the ceremonial roads has greatly hindered development along the main axis.

By TPL Umar Shuaibu

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